February 23rd, 2008
This is an adaptation of a recipe from the fine folks at Bell Plantation, who sell the always great powdered peanut butter. I changed the amounts quite a bit, so it tastes completely different – but what goes in is the same. I also had to try it twice to get the preparation right (there were no directions on how to prepare it, so I really screwed up the first time).
Anyway, here goes. This is my favorite dessert, and is very low fat (around 3.5 grams for 1/8 of the pie).
Ingredients:
- 1 keebler ready crust, reduced fat
- 1 cup of PB2 (powdered peanut butter (review) , order it here))
- 16 oz of fat free cream cheese (2 blocks)
- 8 oz of fat free cool whip (1 small tub) — or substitute with something healthier (fat free sweetened condensed milk?)
- 1/8 cup splenda (omit if substitution has sugar)
To prepare:
- Warm the cream cheese up in the microwave until it’s soft. I think I put it in for a minute or two at medium heat. (check it after a minute, and continue if needed)
- Once soft, use a hand mixer to start whipping up the cream cheese.
- Slowly integrate the PB2 while whipping the cream cheese.
- Once fully integrated, add the cool whip.
- Blend until fully mixed.
- Dump into the crust.
- Chill in the fridge.
Posted in Online store, eating healthy, general, recipes | No Comments »
February 23rd, 2008
My favorite, ever, are these granola bites from the folks at Nature Valley. I put them on my cereal on a daily basis, and they’re fabulous. They finally became available at places such as Safeway and Target (before I had to drive 50 miles to get them, and yes, they were delicious enough to make the drive!) I can’t recommend these things enough – six months going, and I love them just as much.
However, they’re now available from Amazon. And even better than the fact they can come to ME at the office and I don’t have to drive anywhere, I can get them on subscription, save money that way, and don’t even have to remember to order them. How freakin’ awesome is that?
Note that you can cancel a subscription any time, so if you just want to get these once to try them out, you can cancel the subscription right away and just save 15% on the single purchase (why not, eh?)
100 calorie granola bites from Amazon
Posted in Amazon, Online store, Safeway, Target, eating healthy, new products, snacks | No Comments »
February 23rd, 2008
We first tried this sauce after finding it at the Burlingame street fair (or something – those things with all the tables of art and stuff). We used it as a dipping sauce for Trader Joe Lemongrass Chicken Stix, Chicken Egg Rolls, and fresh vegetables. It is fabulous for that purpose – slightly spicy, a slight hint of… vinegar like sourness. We both absolutely love this sauce! Nothing has come close for dipping. Even better, the nutritionals are good – 0% on the fat, sodium, and carb, and only 1 g of sugar per serving.
We ended up getting several bottles from their store online – arrived quick and wrapped in a lot of bubblewrap (bonus!)
Online: http://www.primosgourmetfood.com/GARLIC+GINGER+MARINADE+12oz.html
Or wait until they come to your area: http://www.primosgourmetfood.com/eventschedule.asp
Oh yeah, and the Thai Peanut sauce of theirs is my husbands favorite: http://www.primosgourmetfood.com/THAI+PEANUT+SAUCE+12oz.html
Posted in Online store, condiments | No Comments »
November 4th, 2007
One of my favorite foods – in the world – are Nature Valley Granola Bites on top of my cereal. For serious. I am addicted and have a pack a day on my cereal (typically a small bit of oat bran, a small bit of grape nuts, some berries, and these granola bites. ).
My review is here: 100 Calorie Nature Valley Granola Bites — on your cereal
So, until now, the only place I could buy them was at Sams Club, which is about 50 miles away. I’d stock up on each visit. So I was within 20 packs of running out, so we headed out to Sams Club to get them. They were out. I nearly cried. So we headed out to the next Sams Club – another 20 miles further away from our house – (after calling, they weren’t sure if they had them… they only had the lame Quaker Oat ones). Yeah, so both Sams Clubs didn’t have them any more. I cried. Then I came home and googled online grocery retailers and everyone was “out”. I thought they were discontinued or something.
So I’ve been sulking for the last couple weeks. But I **just** found them at Target, which is a mere 20 minutes away. And they just got them in too, because they didn’t have them yesterday. So I guess Nature Valley was really in the process of rolling them out in a major way – because these things are SO FREAKING AWESOME!
Please give these things a try – without cereal they’re good, with cereal and some milk soaked in they’re AWESOME. Target is starting to carry them, and they’re cheap. YAY for Nature Valley 100 Calorie Granola Bites!!!
UPDATE: You can now buy them from Amazon, even on subscription to save money!
Posted in Amazon, Online store, Target, eating healthy, grocery store find, snacks | 3 Comments »
July 12th, 2007
I love you, powdered peanut butter. FINALLY a peanut butter I can eat that tastes like real peanut butter. One of the few food items I missed horribly after going on a low-fat diet and only allowing fats from olive oil and fish was peanut butter. Even if I tried to limit myself, I’m sure I’d fail. So I just cut it right out of the diet. And trying substitutes just failed – they didn’t taste right. I’ve tried things like “Better N’ Peanut Butter” (just plain gross all around) and soynut butter, which has great texture but weird suffers from aftertaste and is still fairly high in fat (only a tiny bit lower than reduced-fat peanut butter). I have found one soynut butter that’s not too bad though, the chocolate flavor of Simple Food’s soynut butter.
Anyway, this powdered stu I was entirely excited when I found this site with really low-fat peanut butter that apparently tastes “real”, and even happier after the jars of powder arrived and I tried it out to find they were right. The consistency is surprisingly good (and you can control it to a certain extent by what you mix the powder with, and how much), the taste is amazing, and I can once again make a PB&J sandwich that tastes awesome.
Bell Plantation’s PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter
So check it out, see if you like this stuff too. Remember you can mix it with stuff like fat free cream cheese and baking/cooking to make sauces and whatever else.
Posted in Online store | 2 Comments »
June 26th, 2007
Camel Halvah Bars (Noble Foods). These amazing bars are not the lowest in fat, but at least they have healthy fats (and are very filling – watch the serving size tho), no additives, and barely any sugar in ‘em. And they (when fresh) taste out of this world.
Halvah bars are made mostly out of sesame seeds. The ones we’ve tried have varied in taste and texture, depending on how fresh they are. When they’re fresh, there ain’t anything better. When they’re not as fresh, they can still taste pretty great, but are prone to stick to your teeth a little.
We have tried Pistachio (amazing), Chocolate (my fave), and Marble which is a mix of plain and chocolate.
We have found Pistachio and Marble at Rainbow Grocery (1745 Folsom St. San Francisco), Chocolate at Whole Foods (4800 El Camino Real Los Altos), and most flavors are available online (we get most of ours from Amazon).
Update: The Deluxe flavor arrived from Amazon – and these ones are great too. They have pistacios, sunflower seeds, raisins, almonds mixed in the plain flavor. They aren’t quite as fresh as the chocolate and pistachio flavors -it’d rank right up there with pistachio if it was!
But remember, these bars, while healthy and containing healthy fats at the same time aren’t very low fat or low calorie – so watch your portions people 
Posted in Amazon, Online store, Rainbow Grocery, Whole Foods, grocery store find, snacks | No Comments »
June 25th, 2007
Back to Nature’s Bakery Squares are like little tiny breakfast bars, but very delicious. Surprisingly, these things almost have a “home baked” taste, unlike most of the things you find in the grocery store. They’re available in a couple flavors, both pretty healthy in the fat dept – banana walnut and cinnamon rasin are the two that we’ve found, and both are very good. Very very good.
Unfortunately, I can’t find these on their website, http://www.backtonaturefoods.com, or on Amazon (yet, I hope!)
Where did we find them? Of all places, Albertsons (in this case, 6843 Mission St, Daly City) - with the granola/breakfast bars.
We also tried the apple cereal bar – good, but not as good as the bakery squares.
Update: Safeway is now carrying some of the Back to Nature products – our local Safeway has the Trail Mix bars and the breakfast cereal bars (apple). We tried the Trail Mix bars and weren’t really lovin’ them (quite small and high-calorie to boot). But we still love those Bakery Squares a lot!!
UPDATE: Back to Nature Bakery Squares are now available on Amazon (and way cheaper than the grocery store!)
Posted in Lucky Stores (formerly Albertsons), Online store, grocery store find, new products, snacks | 2 Comments »